Stuttering Alli still struggling to find his mojo
THE gaze was fixed more firmly on Dele Alli last night after yet another dazzling week for Jesse Lingard and Raheem Sterling.
In a World Cup year, both Manchester United’s Lingard and Sterling of Manchester City could stake a fair claim for Alli’s place in the England team on current form. They are affecting games with greater purpose and scoring important goals.
For Alli, the stress signals have been clear. This season, the 21-year-old has worn the look of a distracted footballer. His run of 10 matches without a goal between November 1 and St Stephen’s Day exacerbated concerns that he is stuttering at the point of maturity.
In the final two games of that 10-match sequence he could have been shown two red cards, first for a ghastly lunge on City’s Kevin De Bruyne and an equally poor challenge on Burnley’s Charlie Taylor. The actions spoke volumes for a player irritated by his own limitations.
Off the pitch, Alli has recruited an assortment of public relations and commercial specialists who have previously worked with David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho. Alli will know that the extracurricular pays a greater dividend when he gets matters right on the pitch.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has always taken a long-term view, stating in October: ‘It is not that he is not doing good, it is that in the past he was amazing.’ Even his patience, however, must have been tested at times.
Christmas appears to have an energising effect on Alli. He is a slow starter. He scored only five goals for Tottenham before St Stephen’s Day last season and only four by the same stage of the previous campaign. Yet the past week has brought hints of progress.
Alli was impressive in goalscoring performances against Southampton and Swansea.
Here, Alli needed to be fresh of mind as well as movement. This was always going to be an awkward assignment on a night when West Ham came to contain. The visitors had neither a shot nor a corner in the opening hour. David Moyes’s side operated with three centre backs and three holding midfielders plugging the gaps between the midfield and defence.
The result was a painfully dull first half in which Tottenham required half an hour for their first strike on target.
Alli was reduced to scavenging down the left channel for space. When he did find room, his stepovers lacked conviction and were easily dealt with.
In the second half, there was some success as Alli worked the ball to the byline and created a fine chance for Son Heung-min. Alli’s touch then let him down as he sought to bring a Ben Davies cross under his control.
When Spurs fell behind to Pedro Obiang’s marvellous strike, Pochettino launched everything at the West Ham defence.
Yet, as so often this season, it was left to Son to rise to the occasion as Alli toiled. He will know that further improvement is required.